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Waterfall said:
The heated seats and leather are all standards in my car....so why not. In the reviews it is compared to an Audi A4, Acura TSX and Lexus ES without the prestigious name tag and high price. As I get older I tend to go for comfort and we have the SUV for more storage and hauling things around. Paid $5,000. low mileage, safetied and etested including snows on separate rims. I really like the car and haven't spent much on it at all. I usually check to see that all the recalls have been taken care of. Plus it has a good safety rating which is important to me.
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I am a bit phobic about GM. Have never impressed me in general quality-wise, but they do deliver a fair bit of bang for the buck in terms of features, esp. on Buick. I did like the Chevy Equinox I rented when I went to Yellowstone National Park a few years ago. It was weird going out West to drive a vehicle that was assembled less than an hour from my house (the Equinox is built at Cami Automotive in Ingersoll, Ontario, though I think some of the production is moving South now), possibly by people I know (2 of my co-workers' husbands work there).
 
Mendalla said:
I am a bit phobic about GM. Have never impressed me in general quality-wise, but they do deliver a fair bit of bang for the buck in terms of features, esp. on Buick. I did like the Chevy Equinox I rented when I went to Yellowstone National Park a few years ago. It was weird going out West to drive a vehicle that was assembled less than an hour from my house (the Equinox is built at Cami Automotive in Ingersoll, Ontario, though I think some of the production is moving South now), possibly by people I know (2 of my co-workers' husbands work there).
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GM wasn't on my radar either until I took this one out for a drive......we shall see...I'm sure it won't see the endurance of a Toyota or Honda but then again I've always heard it comes down to following up with the owners manual guidelines for a longer life....especially regular oil changes.
 
As for GM,

My first ever car was an 87 Chevy Celebrity. It got the job done, but I wasn't especially impressed with it. We bought it used, and always had trouble starting it in wet weather. We also owned an 05 Chevy Optra. It's the one we replaced with the 15 Civic. It was a decent car, but it was having a lot of problems by 2015, and it actually just died on the side of the road one day when I was driving it. Had about 220000 km on it. Mechanic said it would need a new engine. I was not going to put a new engine in a 10 year old car, so we donated it and moved on.

Also owned a Kia Spectra for a few years. It was OK. Not sure I'd go back to a Kia though. No trade in value on them.

I've only driven Chryslers as rentals - don't really like them for some reason. My father in law owned a Toyota I drove now and then. Nice cars. And I once drove a Hyundai Santa Fe as a rental for a couple of weeks in Georgia and Florida. I loved it, but it's bigger than we'd ever need in the normal course of things.
 
I like that they're making more and more cars with AWD or 4WD now, I only have traction control on mine now. Always wondered why that wasn't an option long ago....it was one of the reasons I usually chose a SUV.
 
Thing is, you really don't need either. The AWD units add weight and use a little more gas, and you already have all wheel braking. It's more economical to buy a FWD car and put winter tires on it, and that vehicle will drive circles around its AWD equivalent in the winter. People get too concerned about ground clearance and tall ride height, when they actually make a car handle worse in all conditions because your centre of mass is now higher. You only need ground clearance if you drive off road or in really deep snow. In the snow we have today, my little FWD GTI, slightly factory lowered and with snows, will totally outperform my "friend's" Q5 that she was told did not need winter tires. My wife has the 4Runner with snows today, and she could pull cars out of ditches with it.

Traction control is useful at speed. At low speeds, it's less than useless. All it does is disconnect the gas pedal from the engine and the good ones selectively apply individual brakes. At low speeds, sometimes you need to keep the throttle up, and nanny-state traction control disconnects you from your own damn car.
 
chansen said:
Thing is, you really don't need either. The AWD units add weight and use a little more gas, and you already have all wheel braking. It's more economical to buy a FWD car and put winter tires on it, and that vehicle will drive circles around its AWD equivalent in the winter. People get too concerned about ground clearance and tall ride height, when they actually make a car handle worse in all conditions because your centre of mass is now higher. You only need ground clearance if you drive off road or in really deep snow. In the snow we have today, my little FWD GTI, slightly factory lowered and with snows, will totally outperform my "friend's" Q5 that she was told did not need winter tires. My wife has the 4Runner with snows today, and she could pull cars out of ditches with it.

Traction control is useful at speed. At low speeds, it's less than useless. All it does is disconnect the gas pedal from the engine and the good ones selectively apply individual brakes. At low speeds, sometimes you need to keep the throttle up, and nanny-state traction control disconnects you from your own damn car.
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My son in law says the same thing as you did about putting snows on with FWD....which is what I did. I didn't know that about traction control.....what's a "nanny-state" traction control? I always thought it was basically the same as pumping your brake?
 
No. Anti-lock is like high-frequency brake pumping that is much better than you can do on your own unless you're a cyborg. Brake pumping itself was a dumb thing to teach back in the day. They should have been stressing threshhold braking, where you learn to find the maximum pressure you can apply by finding the point just before lockup occurs. That involves locking up briefly once or twice, but by then holding the brake pedal just above that point, you well outperform brake pumping. With antilock, you're supposed to stand on the brakes like an idiot, because the system assumes you're an idiot, and when the computer senses any wheel has locked up, it physically kicks your brake pedal back, then releases. Assuming you're hard on the brakes, this turns into a rapidfire vibration of the brake pedal with you pushing and the car pushing back every tenth of a second or something like that.

Someone with good touch for threshold braking can outstop an antilock system. The best is to have antilock, and hold the brake just above where it kicks in. But most people panic and press hard.

Traction control senses when your car is not tracking with all wheels spinning at the same rate. I believe it compensates for turns where the inside wheels travel a shorter distance and therefore at a slower speed than the outside wheels. Basically, it senses when your tires have let go of the road and tries to cut throttle and apply brakes to bring it back under control for you. At highway speed, unless you're a very good driver, it can save your ass. At low speed, it's just a nuisance. I know we're slipping, car, but if you cut my throttle I can't climb this driveway, and then I am going to park you in a swimming pool at my earliest convenience.

I usually turn off traction control in the snow. I won't buy a car if you can't turn it off.

Practice in an empty snow-covered parking lot some time. Seriously. Watch the curbs and light poles. Driving in low traction conditions is a learned skill. I sent my wife to a skid school in Oakville after she slid off the road once. It boosted her confidence immensely.
 
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@Waterfall mentioned pumping your brake.

Some of these cars now recognize that you have removed your foot from the gas pedal and set up the calipers for breaking. They don't break, but, they set it up. This implies when you do hit the brake it is ready for you. no delay
Others actually will break -- have you watched the Volvo commercial where it brakes when a child walks in front of the car.
 
chansen said:
No. Anti-lock is like high-frequency brake pumping that is much better than you can do on your own unless you're a cyborg. Brake pumping itself was a dumb thing to teach back in the day. They should have been stressing threshhold braking, where you learn to find the maximum pressure you can apply by finding the point just before lockup occurs. That involves locking up briefly once or twice, but by then holding the brake pedal just above that point, you well outperform brake pumping. With antilock, you're supposed to stand on the brakes like an idiot, because the system assumes you're an idiot, and when the computer senses any wheel has locked up, it physically kicks your brake pedal back, then releases. Assuming you're hard on the brakes, this turns into a rapidfire vibration of the brake pedal with you pushing and the car pushing back every tenth of a second or something like that.

Someone with good touch for threshold braking can outstop an antilock system. The best is to have antilock, and hold the brake just above where it kicks in. But most people panic and press hard.

Traction control senses when your car is not tracking with all wheels spinning at the same rate. I believe it compensates for turns where the inside wheels travel a shorter distance and therefore at a slower speed than the outside wheels. Basically, it senses when your tires have let go of the road and tries to cut throttle and apply brakes to bring it back under control for you. At highway speed, unless you're a very good driver, it can save your ass. At low speed, it's just a nuisance. I know we're slipping, car, but if you cut my throttle I can't climb this driveway, and then I am going to park you in a swimming pool at my earliest convenience.

I usually turn off traction control in the snow. I won't buy a car if you can't turn it off.

Practice in an empty snow-covered parking lot some time. Seriously. Watch the curbs and light poles. Driving in low traction conditions is a learned skill. I sent my wife to a skid school in Oakville after she slid off the road once. It boosted her confidence immensely.
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I can turn it off on my car, but I usually leave it on in snow or rain.......I will practice in a parking lot sometime.....I used to love doing doughnuts in the snow with the car.:) Thanks.
 
Pinga said:
@Waterfall mentioned pumping your brake.

Some of these cars now recognize that you have removed your foot from the gas pedal and set up the calipers for breaking. They don't break, but, they set it up. This implies when you do hit the brake it is ready for you. no delay
Others actually will break -- have you watched the Volvo commercial where it brakes when a child walks in front of the car.
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ABS brakes right? Haven't seen the Volvo commercial.
 
Pinga said:
@Waterfall mentioned pumping your brake.

Some of these cars now recognize that you have removed your foot from the gas pedal and set up the calipers for breaking. They don't break, but, they set it up. This implies when you do hit the brake it is ready for you. no delay
Others actually will break -- have you watched the Volvo commercial where it brakes when a child walks in front of the car.
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My GTI has autonomous braking. There are proximity sensors and cameras or something. I try very hard not to test it. It also will parallel park itself. Again, never used it.

 
I would kill for a car that would parallel park itself. That is not a skill that I have ever mastered completely, despite my advanced age...
 
My car (2015 Rav 4) has traction control. I understood it was like low 4X4. I've only actually put it in that setting once when I was in deep snow almost to my bumper. It helped. Every now and again, it kicks in on slippery intersections. It maybe gave a bit of reassurance. I have the skills to get out of those situations generally anyway. My skills are increasing in that department right now as our streets in town are horrid because of the tons of snow and extreme cold.

I rarely kick in the ABS. When I do, it usually startles me, which could be a safety concern. Usually it only happens when I accidentally press too hard and too suddenly on my brake, and usually on dry pavement, so no harm, no fowl.
 
Waterfall said:
I can turn it off on my car, but I usually leave it on in snow or rain.......I will practice in a parking lot sometime.....I used to love doing doughnuts in the snow with the car.:) Thanks.
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Dooughnuts are fun, but just go up to 50 and then try to stop. Once you get better at finding the sweet spot and not standing on the brakes, then you can practice brake-and-avoid. Slow like you are braking, then "realize" you can't stop in time and try to go around an imaginary object. You'll find you have to release the brake to turn, or else you'll likely spin.
 
Northwind said:
My car (2015 Rav 4) has traction control. I understood it was like low 4X4. I've only actually put it in that setting once when I was in deep snow almost to my bumper. It helped. Every now and again, it kicks in on slippery intersections. It maybe gave a bit of reassurance. I have the skills to get out of those situations generally anyway. My skills are increasing in that department right now as our streets in town are horrid because of the tons of snow and extreme cold.

I rarely kick in the ABS. When I do, it usually startles me, which could be a safety concern. Usually it only happens when I accidentally press too hard and too suddenly on my brake, and usually on dry pavement, so no harm, no fowl.
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Traction control is typically on unless you turn it off for that drive. Start the car again, and it's on.

I think you're talking about a differential lock. This is for traction when accelerating at low speed. It locks the diff so that all the power doesn't go to the spinning wheel. In AWD vehicles it will turn off automatically at higher speeds so nothing gets broken, because the differential allows the wheels to turn at different rates in a turn, otherwise something breaks. In "real" trucks, the diff lock is a lever that goes ka-chung, and you dare not leave it engaged on dry asphalt. But in snow or mud, it gets you out of a lot of spots.

What we need is for more cars to come with limited slip differentials, standard. No settings to worry about. But those are pricy. The option for a LSD on my GTI was about $3500, with larger brakes and little more HP. LSDs are mostly on performance cars, but all cars could use them.
 
chansen said:
Dooughnuts are fun, but just go up to 50 and then try to stop. Once you get better at finding the sweet spot and not standing on the brakes, then you can practice brake-and-avoid. Slow like you are braking, then "realize" you can't stop in time and try to go around an imaginary object. You'll find you have to release the brake to turn, or else you'll likely spin.
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Without the traction control on?
 
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